Barack Obama Will Not Allow DACA to Go Without a Fight

As President Trump again threatens the country's "core values," his predecessor speaks out.

President Trump officially announced the termination of the DACA program on Tuesday morning, enlisting Attorney General Jeff Sessions to deliver a series of outlandish lies about the administration's rationale for placing hundreds of thousands of courageous young people at risk of deportation. It is an utterly amoral decision driven by a potent combination of unapologetic ignorance, virulent nativism, and a startling tolerance for unadorned cruelty, and President Obama—who initiated the DACA program through executive action five years ago—wasted no time in speaking out.

Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules.

But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.

After noting that the legislature repeatedly failed during his presidency to pass a bill that would allow these individuals a chance to earn their citizenship—and reflecting on the successes of the program spearheaded by his White House instead—he continued:

But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and
brightest young people once again. To target these young people is
wrong—because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating—because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in
our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it
is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor
turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a
country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even
speak?

Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are that pitcher on our kid’s softball team, that first responder who helps out his community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.

The language may appear polite, but this is a borderline-unprecedented rebuke from a former president to his successor, at least by modern standards: President Obama directly calls out the administration's proffered explanation as a dishonest pretext for its efforts to champion an anti-immigrant political agenda at any cost. After reiterating his challenge to Congress to fix what President Trump needlessly elected to break today, he concluded:

Ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are
a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we
treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about
who we are as a people—and who we want to be.

What makes us American is not a question of what we look like, or
where our names come from, or the way we pray. What makes us American
is our fidelity to a set of ideals—that all of us are created equal;
that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will;
that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure
our most cherished values for the next generation. That’s how America
has traveled this far. That’s how, if we keep at it, we will
ultimately reach that more perfect union.

Last year, as he was preparing to leave office, President Obama gently but firmly dismissed calls for him to serve as a vocal leader of the then-burgeoning #Resistance, explaining that his respect for the office and for the democratic process required that he "be quiet" and allow elected officials to do their jobs without having to account for the meddlesome intrusions of a former chief executive. However, he was quick to add that if the White House were to imperil the country's "core values"—citing the Muslim ban and threats to DACA as specific examples of potentially looming threats—he would think hard about breaking his silence.

Sure enough, President Obama spoke up when the White House rolled out its travel ban, and he chimed in for good measure after President Trump announced the country's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, too. But his full-throated defense of DACA recipients is his most powerful post-presidential statement yet: measured and courteous, yet resolutely unwilling to allow Donald Trump to plunge jobs and families and lives into danger without first asking Americans to ponder the moral consequences of their elected leader's choice.